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It’s Dinovember!

I have been wanting to have Dinovember since last November when I saw the adorable online postings from the parents who would move a set of plastic toy dinosaurs around their house every night to surprise their children. Refe and Susan Tuma (those creative parents) actually coined the term “Dinovember” and even have a book out about their dinosaurs’ escapades!

I have also been wanting a break from major decorating since the end of our Summer Reading Program, and Dinovember was the perfect opportunity. Basically, we put the kids to work for us by creating this activity station:

Here they color and cut out these dinosaurs that I made using online clipart that I traced with permanent marker. I mainly do this for consistency’s sake, but also to edit the images to make it easier for the younger children. Download and print out these coloring sheets by clicking here!

When the kids finish their work (on both sides, if we can get them to do so), then they bring it up to us and we put them in the window. Basically, we tell them that we’re creating our own Jurassic Park! It’s been a week so far, and kids have been losing their minds as they come into the library shouting “dinosaurs!” And then they get even more excited when they realize that their very own dinosaur can be displayed.

The most complex thing that I did this month was the sign which was originally going to be in the front window. However, we’ve done so many signs in our front window or above our reading bench, that those locations were boring me. What’s a girl to do? Hang it above the circulation desk, of course!

It may be small, but it’s pretty dramatic. Sort of like our Children’s Library (hay-ooo)!

Brittany, by far, did the most extensive part of Dinovember: our Great Wall-o-Pun. I sort of forced her to do this one since I freaked out when I saw an episode of Gravity Falls where Mabel puts this sticker on someone. I knew at that moment what we had to put on our wall:

I love it SO HARD! And naturally, we feature junior non-fiction books about dinosaurs beneath it. And yes, Jurassic Poop was the first book to be checked out from that display.

Our passive program is a nod to Dinovember’s origins. It’s a scavenger hunt for plastic dinosaurs that we have hidden throughout the library:

To cut down on the kids moving/playing with them, they’re all being hidden well out of reach. Each week we’ll adjust the number and their locations. We started this first week with them in super-obvious places just to help the kids learn what they’re looking for (for the most part – it still seems to throw some).

These are the really tricky ones:

Finally: the accidental display! I wasn’t even going to put a sign up over the reading bench, and just have fictional dinosaur books featured as a display. However, that all changed when a grandmother asked if we had our Thanksgiving books on display anywhere. Of course, my first thought was: DINOSAUR THANKSGIVING!

I tried really hard to come up with a simple way to point out that turkeys are dinosaur descendants, but failed. The display came together when I did an image search for dinosaur thanksgiving and almost fell out of my chair when I saw this image by Murder Salad:

How perfect is that?! I tweeted to her and asked if we could use her image for a book display (giving her credit) and she very quickly/graciously consented. Here’s what the display ended up looking like:

It’s been a lot of fun watching both kids and parents really take in that image of the Dinosaur Thanksgiving. You should totally check out the other fun images that Murder Salad has created – I think she’s a bit warped like me (in a good way, of course).

And there you have it: Dinovember! It’s been even more fun than I had anticipated, and after the initial push to get the few things we had to get done (right before my vacation – whew!) it has been smooth as butter. Or silk. Or silky butter. Silky smooth dinosaur butter…

Brief Update:

I realized that y’all might enjoy this logo I created to use on a bookmark we gave out right after Jurassic World was released. Click on the image to get a larger jpeg for your own use!

I am a new children’s librarian and I have loved reading your blog and decorating ideas ever since I “found” you a few months ago. I knew you were in Nebraska, (I’m from McCook) but had no idea where you were located. On Saturday, we were in Gretna visiting family for the weekend and went to the children’s library with our kids and grandchildren. I come home to read this post and realize I was in THE Hafuboti Library. I loved everything in your library and took lots of pictures so I could try some of the ideas back here in McCook. Wished I could have been there in October to see your ghosts! I’ll have to make sure my granddaughter gets taken to your library every Saturday so I can hear what amazing things you’re up to now!!

Wow! I just got chills! Well, I was there on Saturday so we might have met – it was a pretty busy Saturday for us. Definitely introduce yourself the next time you’re in town and we can chat! Thank you for one of my now all-time favorite comments!

Hi! My library is going to try Dinocember this year, so thank you for posting these wonderful ideas. Where did you order the colorful bone erasers from? Also, could you send me the coloring pages? Thanks :)

Hiya, Krystal! I’m so excited that you’re doing Dinocember (LOVE IT)! I’m not sure where our previous Children’s Librarian ordered those from, but my best guess is that it was part of the CSLP’s 2012 summer catalog, so they’re no longer available (at least that I could find).

I sent you the coloring pages a few minutes ago – please let me know if you didn’t receive them.

My library had planned to have the Danny and the Dinosaur dino costume during vacation week in December, so when I told my coworkers about Dinovember, one of them thought Dinocember would also work great with our costumed character timing. We love your ideas on this blog!
Thank you for the info and for the coloring pages. I am on a quest to find another fun giveaway now. :)

Take it, run with it, and enjoy! Don’t add credit to the printing (I think it takes away from the image – and you could always tell ’em where you got the image if anyone inquires). Have fun Dinovembering!

i love love love love LOVE this! I’m a kids librarian in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. would you be willing to email me your templates for the dinosaur coloring pages and the Dinovember graphic?? This is fantastic! THANK YOU!

We’ve been wanting to do this for ages too based on the success of other libraries. It’s the perfect passive programming idea. And a nice lead in to our annual Elf on the Library Shelf LOL. We’re having a Dinovember Party with Lakeshore Learning helping us by bringing in their dinosaur goodies. We would love it if you could email us the templates for the dinosaur coloring pages too. Thank you in advance from Rhode Island.